Friday, March 11, 2016

Uncle Jimmy& bud

Dear Elder Fife,

I have been thinking of you so often over the past couple weeks. You have uplifted me and our family so many times with your missionary experiences and epic adventures that I wanted to share one with you that we have just had. We were challenged a few months ago by some great Elders to pray for missionary experiences. It was a normal dinner appointment and then the usual commit the family to pray and try to find. For some reason this time we seemed to take it a bit more serious, the boys started going out with missionaries weekly, I started praying with a bit more faith to get some sort of experience. I spend most of my time working as you know and we are all mormon at work so I really wondered how I could actually share the gospel in any meaningful way. Around Christmas time we knew we were going to need some customer service help so we used a temp agency to hire someone. Josh started working for us, every hour Josh took a smoke break, he had 2 cars repossessed while working here, he is married and his wife was not working, a pretty typical undereducated, poverty cycle situation. A daughter that the grandmother has custody over etc etc. Not Gospel accepting material right???? I read the attached story and could not help but feel like Josh was one of my friend in the pre existence. It makes no sense, we could not be more different in almost every way. But I could not shake the feeling that the Gospel would change their lives. Finally I invited them to take the discussions, I brought them to church, they are not in my ward so I went with them to another ward. We had them in our home for the discussions, we testified of the Gospel and taught them the plan of salvation, the Spirit was there and strong and witnessed to them that what was being taught was true. They accepted all the commitments, Josh stopped smoking, Rainie (his wife) took out her tongue ring, they committed to pay tithing even knowing they don’t have enough to get buy now. We promised Rainie that if she would commit to pay tithing that she would not only get a job but a job that did not require her to work on Sunday……Elder that night they committed to pay tithing and the next day she got a job. Last Saturday they were both baptized and Sunday given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Their whole countenance has changed. Rainie even bore her testimony. Their Daughter wants to get baptized too……I just wanted to share with you something that you have been lifting me with for 18 months. God is good. He loves all his Children and we have made promises to find those that we loved in the pre existence, of that I testify and know is true. I am so thankful for the Gospel and for this opportunity to see Josh and Rainie blessed by it. What a miracle. I love you Elder…..

Read this to the members you visit and tell them that a brother in Arkansas promises that if they will pray with faith God will help them find their friends…

The following even took place in a ward in Salt Lake City in 1974. It happened during Sacrament Meeting and it was told by a representative of the Twelve Apostles who was in the meeting. A young man, who was just about to depart for his mission stood up in Sacrament and shared in essence the following testimony:

"Brothers and Sisters, as you know during the last few weeks I have been waiting for my mission call. During the time in which I was waiting I had a dream. I know that it wasn't an ordinary dream. I dreamt that I was in the Pre-Existence and was waiting for my calling to go to Earth. The same emotion and anticipation that I had before I received my mission call filled me."

"In my dream I was speaking with my friend; he was a very beloved friend and I felt a special closeness about him, even more than I had known in this life. While we were speaking, a messenger came and gave me a letter. I knew that it was my calling to go to Earth."

"With great emotion, my friend and I opened the letter. I gave it to him and asked him to read it out loud. The letter said: 'You have been called to go to the Earth in a special time and a special country. You will be born in the true Church and have the Priesthood of God in your home. You will grow with many blessings and advantages. You will be born in an abundant land, a land of Liberty. You will go to the Earth, to the United States of America.'"

"My friend and I rejoiced while we read my calling and while we were rejoicing, the messenger returned. In this occasion he brought a letter for my friend. We knew that it was his calling to go to the Earth. My friend gave me the letter to read out loud. The letter said: 'You have been called to go to Earth in circumstances of poverty and conflicts. You won't be born in the true Church. A lot of suffering will come to pass in your life. Your country will be involved in political and social difficulties, which will hinder the work of the Lord. You will be born in Costa Rica.'"

"We cried, my friend and I, while we read the calling. And my friend looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, 'When we are down there on Earth, you in your chosen land and me in Costa Rica, my friend, please come and find me.'"

Then this young missionary, with tears in his eyes said: "Brothers and Sisters, I have received my mission call. I'm going to Costa Rica."

One year after this Sacramental Service the Bishop of that ward received a letter from the missionary in Costa Rica. The letter had only one piece of paper and written in big letter were the following words...